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Talk:Eye of the Dryer/@comment-3041875-20170901142913
The Good – This was a solid episode. While not necessarily all the most exciting stories, I enjoyed them all at least enough, and there were some excellent moments. I just knew as Ben tried comforting Val that the teaser was going to end with her telling him to shut up, though I thought her choice of words would be a little harsher than what she actually said. Ben finding Val stabbed and then comforting her in the hospital were fine enough scenes (see Observations for more), and I liked that both Liz and Ali comforted him; they're becoming a nice little family. Ben's dialogue to them perhaps went on a little too long, as sometimes less is more, and things like hearing that his first child dying has never left him wasn’t necessary, as it's obvious, but I still enjoyed the scene. Jennifer's goodbye to Ben and Ali was a nice moment, and their car trip to try and stop her from leaving was fun, with Ben not going over the speed-limit and Ali taking over the wheel. I always appreciate the little homages to me, like Ben taking honey in his tea (maybe cause I'm a dork?). I was initially quite worried that, while Rena and Theresa's scenes were enjoyable enough, they wouldn’t really amount to much. Then, they came across the Devious Butler's mask in the store, which was a nice development, and Theresa's exploits came back to bite them. I also enjoyed the role reversal, with the male shop-owner being annoyed Theresa slept with him and then didn’t call. I expected more resolution between Rena and Theresa over the situation, but I suppose it's part of Theresa's character that isn't going to just suddenly change. I enjoyed him bringing back up her relationship with Ben though, and the awkwardness between Ben and Theresa at the coffee shop. Liz and Theresa then pairing-up to catch the Devious Butlers was an unexpected development for the story, but I was curious to see what would come from it, and it makes enough sense for their characters. The discovery of the crematorium was a fine development and led to another murder (though see below for more on that), then the final scene of Liz and Theresa discovering the shrine to Justine and large meeting table was certainly intriguing. It was quite exciting, finding one of the Devious Butlers and then three more returning, and the whole chase. The final image (I think) of Liz being trapped in Rochelle's grave while the Devious Butlers surrounded her and Theresa was grabbed, was an excellent one (though I found some of the scene was written a little confusingly, especially the last couple of lines). Josh's story of knowing that Juan doesn’t deserve his help, but being too nice a person not to help anyway was all very nice. The conclusion was satisfying enough and led to the development of Josh's mother having arrived. It was easy to feel for Josh and sympathise with how Juan may remind him of mistakes he made while with Brad, but what makes Josh likeable is that despite this, he still tried to do the right thing. It was understandable that he lost it with Juan, and it was admirable that he went to apologise and even admitted he was mostly helping to get his mind off things because he doesn’t know what to do without Brad. As Josh admits that he obviously won't be ready to date again for a while yet, you feel sad for him, but also happy that he has his friends around. His brief interaction with Joanna was nice, as was his scene with the butlers, as he explained it was the first time he had really been with just them in a while. Joanna now wanting to help solve the mystery and take down Nadia, after last episode, makes sense, as does her not wanting Joe to give-up – it's who he is. Their story didn’t really pick-up until the party, but I enjoyed how things escalated there, with the Kappelletti children trying to kill them, the Devious Butlers crashing the party and the police then arresting Joe for Rochelle's murder. The Bad – While the scenes at the crematorium may have given us another murder, it was again of someone we barely know or care about. We were promised a bloodbath, but you didn’t tell us the blood would just belong to a bunch of minor characters. It's been a strong season, and I'm enjoying the story, but I think it would be even stronger if there was a real sense that the main characters were actually in danger. For example, the episode ends with Liz and Theresa being taken kidnapped (presumably, they need to be kept alive to find out where Theresa threw her phone to), but I don’t really have much worry over them coming out of the situation unscathed, which takes away a lot of impact from what was otherwise a great scene. I'm still hoping that there will be some payoff, but the Devious Butlers just aren’t coming across as menacing as they could. Leaving behind the pole with the crematorium's markings on it also seemed too silly a mistake to be made by them. Observations – Adding to this, is the fact that they left Val alive, which I also brought up in my last review. If the Devious Butlers meant to kill Val and failed to, then that looks pretty weak on their part and unbelievable as a reader. I suppose, they may have just wanted to kill the babies. After all, serial killers usually want to cause as much pain as possible and leaving behind a grieving mother is pretty cruel. I also have another theory though, and that's that Val could be behind the attack, explaining some of her behaviour in the hospital and also since it'd be the perfect way to hurt Ben, having him loose another child. After the ending scene though, with the shrine to Justine, I'm not so sure on this, as it'd probably be too obvious if Val's behind the Devious Butlers. Another theory I've had and now put to rest is that the Devious Butlers were Brad and James. After all, we never saw Brad's body and it was possible he survived the explosion (though came out scarred, possibly explaining the need for a mask) and James has motive from being the estranged son of Joey, who he might have wanted to avenge. This theory was always pretty farfetched, but I can safely put it to rest now that there's a whole gang of Devious Butlers. I'm pretty lost now as to who it could be, but Kathryn and Juanita remain possible suspects, as do Mary, Juan and even Strange and Huberd, I suppose. There isn't a whole lot of suspects really, and I can't think of much possible motive, but maybe I'm just missing something or maybe there really haven’t been any clues towards it. Best Butler – I'm going with Josh, since his story was probably the most emotive. That may seem odd considering Ben just lost a child, but I just felt more engaged with Josh's character and story throughout. In fact, Ben's story shifted focus largely to Jennifer and when he did talk about his pain over losing children it was a little too expositive, though I still enjoyed the story fine. Rena's and Joe's were solid enough also, but Joe's didn’t really take-off until near the end and Rena's led to even better focus on Theresa and Liz than what he and Theresa had got. Overall - Another solid episode, with a lot of great focus on the Devious Butlers and exiting scenes. Now, I just for some payoff over the serial killers and consequence for our main characters. 8.6.